The Handbook of Texas: says
PEARSALL, TEXAS. Pearsall, the county seat of Frio County, is
on Interstate Highway 35 and the Missouri Pacific Railroad fifty-five
miles southwest of San Antonio in the central part of the county. In
the 1870s wagon trains stopped at a well on a large sheep ranch
when they traveled the road from Frio Town to Pleasanton; this well
was known as Waggoner's (Wagner's) Well. On February 6, 1882,
the International-Great Northern Railroad gained control of 2,000
acres of land around the well. An affiliate, the New York and Texas
Land Company,qv allowed them to circumvent Texas laws limiting
railroad ownership of land, and, on February 15, 1882, they platted
the townsite of Pearsall, named after the vice president of the
railroad, Thomas W. Pearsall, east of the newly laid railroad tracks
opposite Waggoner's Well
A couple of years ago we at the Pearsall list were trying to determine
which Thomas W. Pearsall this might be. Until recently I discovered
at World Connect on Rootsweb a
David Leggett who had the answer!
Here's what I found at David's site:
# Name: Mary LEGGETT
Thomas W. Pearsall, son of Edmund Pearsall, Chapter 44, Section 15;
born December 8, 1795; died February 21, 1866; buried in Woodlawn
Cemetery, Westchester Co., New York; resided at West Farms, Westchester
Co., New York; married April 15, 1824, at Reformed Dutch Church, Manhasset,
Long Island, New York, Mary Leggett, daughter of Thomas Leggett and his wife,
Mary Underhill. She was born January 13, 1803; died July 20, 1878.
Henry, Thomas, Henry, Thomas, Edmund, Thomas W., Thomas W.,
Back to
Pearsall Index
# Sex: F
# Birth: 13 JAN 1803
# Death: 20 JUL 1878
Fifth: I give and bequeathe all my stock in the International and Great Northern Railroad Company to John W. Sterling in Trust 1. to receive the income thereof and at any time or times in his discretion to sell the said stock and to receive the proceeds of such sale and invest and re-invest the same in such securities as he may deem fit whether the same are such as are permitted for investment, by trustees under the law of this State or not and also to receive the income of such investments and reinvestments. 2. To apply all moneys so received by him whether principal or income in the first place to the re-payment to my said Edwin Thorne, at such times and in such instalments as my said trustee shall think fit but in equal shares of the said sum of Twenty-eight thousand dollars paid to me by my said son and deceased daughter as aforesaid (deducting therefrom whatever may have been paid on account thereof out of the proceeds of my real estate hereinbefore devised) together with interest on the said sum from the sixteenth day of May eighteen hundred and sixty-seven. 3. To apply the remainder of such moneys to the use of my grand children me surviving at such times and in such instalments as my said trustee may think fit but in equal shares.
(4) To dispose all the remainder of the fund in his hands whether principal or income among all my grandchildren me surviving in equal shares. Upon the death of Paul Spofford Pearsall and Thomas W. Pearsall, Junior (the said persons being two minor children of my said son Thomas W. Pearsall) or upon the request of both my executors at the arrival at majority of either of the two said minor children or in the discretion of my said trustee at any earlier period said Trust then to cease and wholly determine.
In the Pearsall Genealogy; Book Three; Chapter 46; section 16 (page 1348):
Children:
Charlotte Pearsall, born January 3, 1825; died July 3, 1867; married
May 6, 1837, to Edwin Thorne, born January 20, 1826. Children:--*
Thomas Pearsall Thorne. *2. Chester Thorne. *3. Oakleigh Thorne.
2. Anne M. Pearsall, born July 29, 1826; died November 26, 1828.
3. Caroline Pearsall, born April 9, 1828, died July, 1832, aged 4.
4. Edward Pearsall, born April 4, 1830; died Jue 6, 1832.
5. Robert W. Pearsall, born August 30, 1833; married Elizabeth W. Phelps.
See Y this section. (note: this is part of the deleted material.)
6. Thomas W. Pearsall, born June 6, 1838; married Anna P. Spofford.
See Z, this section. (also part of the deleted material)